‘Deeply regret to inform you that 2/Lt C F B Hodgins 2/Wiltshire Regt is reported killed Sept 25/26. Lord Kitchener desires to express his sympathy. Secretary War Office.’ – Telegram from the War Office dated 29 September 1915This is the true and previously untold story of one man’s war on the Western Front during the First World War. As a young man, still in his teens, Charles Francis Burgoyne Hodgins, known as Charlie, answered the call to ‘do his bit’ for King and Country. Like so many others, he was never to return. He was killed on 25 September 1915, on the opening day of the Battle of Loos, and is one of many thousands who now lie in cemeteries near the former battlefields of northern France. According to an officer in his battalion, he died 'leading his men with great gallantry, and even when wounded, tried to rise and take them on'.Drawing on the many letters, photographs and telegrams Charlie sent home, along with newspaper articles, war archives and other personal accounts, historian Peter Jacobs has pieced together the final moments of Charlie’s short life. This is a compelling and poignant tale of personal courage and one family’s loss. But it also tells of the tragedy and suffering experienced by a generation of men during the First World War.
